India in the 21st Century

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Mira Kamdar

Description

In 2015, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to a cheering crowd, "The 21st century is India's century." According to current projections, India will overtake China to become the most populous country on Earth by 2050. Its 1.6 billion people will live in the world's second-largest economy, after China but ahead of the United States and the European Union, and it is poised to be the leading market for information and communication technologies.

With India in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Mira Kamdar offers readers an introduction to India today in all its complexity. In a concise question-and-answer format, Kamdar addresses India's history, from the Indus Valley Civilization to the fractious, diverse democracy in place today, with its rapidly growing economy and financial system, the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century, and the environmental concerns faced by the country. Here are India's contradictions and complications -- the mega-urbanization and emerging urban crisis; the drastic economic inequality; the reconciliation of modernity with tradition, especially in the case of India's young women. Kamdar also celebrates the merging of India's multicultural landscape and deep artistic and intellectual heritage with the dawning of the Information Age and the expansion of mass media, which have made it one of the world's 21st-century cultural powerhouses.

With clarity and balance, Kamdar brings her deep familiarity with and expertise on India to bear in this addition to Oxford's acclaimed WhatEveryone Needs to Know® series.

India in the 21st Century

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Mira Kamdar

Table of Contents

Introduction: India: Past and Future Present

Part One: How India Got to the 21st CenturySection I: India's Civilizational Legacy Section II: India and Western ExpansionSection III: India's Independence MovementSection IV: A New RepublicSection V: The 1990s and early 2000s: Setting the Stage for the 21st Century

India in the 21st Century

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Mira Kamdar

Author Information

Mira Kamdar is a member of the Editorial Board of the International New York Times where she writes on international affairs. Her work has appeared in Slate, The Washington Post, The Times of India, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and the World Policy Journal. A Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute and an Associate Fellow at the Asia Society, she is also the author of Planet India.

India in the 21st Century

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Mira Kamdar

Reviews and Awards

In Praise of Planet India: "This briskly written, vivid account shows how that subcontinental country's films, technology, and service industries have made India an ever-growing presence on the American scene. Time to recognize yet another awakening giant snapping at our heels." - The Atlantic Monthly